Playing cards and moving on

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Farewell Hoi An

Our last days in Hoi An have been real fun. The temperature here is going up every day. In other words: it is burning hot! What else to do than heading for a cool swim regularly... We found a nice quiet stretch of beach in Hoi An for our regular daily dip. Cruising the land on our motorbike (read: scooter), playing in the waves, drinking a Saigon beer and avoiding the sun was about all we did. Lilli managed to become a semi-pro in playing the local card game. This increased her status amongst the renters of our parasols at the beach significantly ;-). Moreover, playing cards with the locals was great fun and she even managed to remember how to count to 2 in vietnamese. Well, one has to start somehwere...

When we finally decided it was time to leave because we had to see a bit more of this country, we bid the beach and these people farewell and went off to a wonderful little family-run restaurant to have a last meal. We have been eating there for most of the two weeks we spend in Hoi An so we had become part of the furniture. Once the family discovered it was our last meal, the father took of on his motorbike and we were to remain seated until he returned. When he did, he took us to our bike to which he had attached a small plastic bag. "Not to forget Hoi An" he said. Mimi opened the bag to discover that the family offered us a beautiful silk scarf as well as a silk tie for Mimi. We felt truely touched!

The next day, a minibus picked us up at 4.30 am to bring us to the trainstation in Danang. Another 13 hour trip to Ninh Bin would fill our day, but no problem: we slept like babies again. Ninh Bin is a little country town (53.000 inhabitants) with beautiful rivers and limestone hills, set among endless rice paddies. As usual, it took a while to convince the owner of our hotel that we really didn't want his guided all-sights-in-one-day tour. When he finally gave in, he rented us a motorbike and off we went for another three days cruising around. Beautiful roads through the hills, crossing the endless rice paddies. A chorus of "hello how are you" everywhere we went. And to top it all off, a nice little breeze to cool us off a bit while driving. As we said in our previous entry: Vietnam is growing on us!

So what's next?

And just in time because we are leaving tomorrow. The monsoon is coming soon now and we had to find a way and a place to stand the rain. We found one at the International Buddhist Academy in Kathmandu, Nepal. The next three and a half months, we will be studying Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan. We will start with studying Bodhicharyavatara (Bodhisattva’s way of life) for one month. These teachings are very closely linked to altruism and compassion, a subject Lili can't seem to get enough of ;-)). Subsequently, we'll be doing a ten days retreat and after that we will study for two months Abhidharma-kosha (Treasury of Higher Knowledge).

Abhidharma is one of the three crucial categories of the Buddhist teaching and makes up the training of higher knowledge, the source of all Buddhist Philosophies throughout all schools and periods. Literally, Abhidharma means “higher Dharma”, and is a systematic categorization of phenomena in a clear and detailed way. The Abhidharma is a unique feature of Buddhism. By mapping out the training towards higher knowledge, it leads one to an understanding of both sutras and tantras. The object of the Abhidharma is to know how samsara functions and therefore to understand how to become free of it. The Abhidharma text is “nominal Abhidharma”. The actual Abhidharma is the Transcendental Wisdom of realizing the non-existence of “self”.

Want to know more? On this webpage you can get a nice impression of where we go and what we will be studying:
http://www.sakyaiba.edu.np/index.html

So, time to go to the bank, buy some toothpaste and print our e-tickets! Catch you all soon and feel free to let us know how you are doing yourself ;-)
M&L

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Photos

Burning Rice paddies
After harvesting the rice, the paddies are cleaned by burning the rest.

Ninh Bin Area
Limestone hills and big rivers surrounded by rice paddies.

Look at my Buffalo!
Now, pay me for the picture please...

Kenh Gha floating village
Sharing the boat to do about anything you can think of.

Comments

[Gertien]

bekijk de video
Dag lieverds, Wat heerlijk weer iets van jullie reis te lezen en vooral te zien! Zoals jullie met de locals omgaan!! Ik kan het me levendig voorstellen zoals ik jullie ken. Leuk leuk leuk. En mooie foto's! Een ieder die dit leest kan ik aanraden naar de site te gaan van het instituut in Nepal en daar de video's te bekijken. Vooral de 13 minuten fun geeft een levendig beeld wat jullie daar te wachten staat. Heel enthousiast word ik daarover! Wat een mooie omgeving, goed gebouw, goed programma, lekker eten, rust en inkeer mogelijk. Goede reis en ik stuur ook nog een private mail ivm. andere zaken, hoor! Liefs, Gertien

[Jur]

Quicky!
Ola out-and-abouters, A very short message from me this time. Jess and me are off to Italy tomorrow morning and yes, I still need to pack everything :-) So no funny comments on the two of you going of to Nepal studying things which you already know and no funny comments about silk scarfs and Michel in a tie. No, not this time. But in 2,5 weeks I'll be back and if noone else has picked up the glove, I'll be glad to do it. Hug, Jur

[Peter]

Altruistc?.do me a favour
Lili This is certainly not the best way to communicate this, but I seem to have lost your email addy. I'm just reading a sunday paper.mentioning a study at Bristol Univ by Paul Gregg ( economist) on altruism in the workplace, and where it's most common. It looked like your meat: Love ( and to mimi.sort of).....arnold

[Giny]

money
Hello people. How is the money?When I read all the traveling, you two are very rich. When do have to start earning something? En ik heb niets gelezen over de mooie Vietnamese mannen. Tenminste ik vind ze mooi. Greetings, Giny